Malfunction Leads to Loss of Frozen Eggs, Embryos

March 9, 2018 — At least 2,100 frozen eggs and embryos from between 500 and 600 families were lost after a malfunction last weekend at an egg freezing facility in Cleveland.

There appears to have been an equipment failure at a long-term storage tank containing liquid nitrogen at the University Hospitals Fertility Center, NBC News reported.

The failure resulted in the temperature in the tank becoming warmer than it should be, which means many of the eggs and embryos in the tank may no longer be viable, according to Patti DePompei, president, UH MacDonald Women’s Hospital and UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

Some of the eggs and embryos had been stored for decades.

“We don’t know the reasons why yet,” DePompei told NBC News. “But we do know that the temperature that was measured at a portion of the tank was higher than our acceptable limits.”